esrosedotblog

The term "faith based" is such a pile of shit.

These are code words for hate group, discrimination supporters, homophobics and the like.

Now someone, not gay, is calling a halt to this double talk.

NFL Wants to Sack Anti-Gay Bill in Georgia

Unlikely allies? Not really.

The NFL is inclusive and does not want to be seen as even touching the sickness of the religious bigots. Or any bigots.

God is love. Great cover for the bastards who don't want some others to be happy. Twisted. Sick-os.

And so on.

Feel the rant.

There has been a wave of this coming as a way to wiggle through the clear mandates of the Supreme Court and other legal guardians.

There is no point going on about it.

That this is Georgia is a big deal. No more automatic knee jerk hatred from the South. The New South.

Labels: bigotry, christists, gay rights, hate

This is an amazing photo.

A re-creation with a new cast including a black President.

That is a lot of progress.

But there is still a lot more to do.

We all know that.

There is no point in beating the drum here.

Those of us who have reached the top of the mountain still owe something to those still left behind.

My perspective is one of being a gay man. Not the same thing as being black. But totally the same, in respect to the bigotry and hatred that hides in the byways and bushes along the road.

Inequality is built into our system and it has to be retracted and refracted every day.

By system I mean the big system. Capitalism, society.

But also the little system, the heart, the mind of all humans who distrust difference.

All of us.

Labels: bigotry

The New York Irish establishment has relented.

They are going to allow "the gays" to march in the Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Gay Groups to March in St. Patrick’s Day Parade as a Ban Falls

Basically, I don't give a shit one way or another but the annual scuffle over this has been a nasty slap in the face particularly to gay people who are members of the Catholic Church.

Oh. Yes, there are gay Irish. Quite a few in my experience.

Some people believe otherwise. I have actually met a few. Here and there. It is my impression that there are a lot of them.

For these people, personally it is a painful experience to be shunned by their own family. No matter how one braces for it, there is hurt. Deep hurt.

It is interesting how close the whole thing binds with the "Archbishopric" of New York. As that Cardinal goes, so goes the flock. So it is probably a bigger picture.

That is the funny thing to me. A bystander. When it comes to the Catholic Church the image frequently belies the actual practice. I have known so many gay priests! Amazing to me. They stay where they are, everyone knows, it is the open secret. Then as an institution they are homophobes. Self hatred.

One of the most flagrant high church homes was Cardinal Spellman. I think his drag name was "Franny". Hah.

This is the interesting part. The reverse effect of gay pride. The deeply closeted even unmarried queer who turns anti-gay so that no one will see his own nature.

For the regular folks, it is not so easy to doff one's heritage. Church is part of life for many. I had to deal with a mild case of guilt over my Methodist labeled sins. It used to be a liberal church. They turned somewhere in the 60s. They are still out there in bigotry land spouting their hateful shit.

Labels: bigotry, gay history, gay rights

Robert Gates poses as a moderate Republican. Reasonable. Not a fiery eyed wing nut.

But when it comes down to it he talks from both sides of his right wing mouth.

Gates Would Have Allowed Gay Adult Scouts

Last year. But not now. Not that he is the new president of the scouts.

His appointment had me feeling pretty good for awhile. The scouts have a bad record with "the gays" as well as other social issues. Being neat and kind doesn't extend too far beyond the usual christian boundaries. The scouts still have the tinge, and more, of its churchy past. Protestant variety. They used to be a the bane of catholic boys. Not supportive. Now that still extends to gay men and other misfits in the Prot demonology.

This is the old association of gay with pedophila. A canard buried long ago. But not here.

My Dad had a term that fits these guys. "Mealy mouthed bastards".

I was a cub for about a minute. Our organization was very flimsy. Later, when I had boys of my own we tried with cubs, even had a den in the house but it didn't last. Attendance, leadership. Mostly my inability to gin up enthusiasm.

I believe that the guys who turn out to be two faced on gay issues are the real enemy. At least you can see the ones who hate. The liberal conservatives hide under a mask of being nice that only goes so deep.

Labels: bigotry, Republicans

PSA

Labels: bigotry, marriage equality

ORGANIZED BIGOTRY

The Methodist Church has always been filled with bastards. Social control.

Caught in Methodism's Split Over Same Sex Marriage

But they used to be more liberal bigots.

When I was a kid I was brought up in a Methodist Church. Notice I do not say "the Methodist Church".

In our Methodist Church, the social gospel was non-existent. It was a social organization with the usual approval disapproval mechanisms. Not a lot of theology.

I never really understood much of any of it. The Trinity? Huh?

When I was 8 or something my cousin Gordon got me to help him as sunday school secretary so I got out of going to class. We bummed around when we were done counting the money.

Then Gordon got me to be an usher. Hand out programs. Show people to seats. Take off when the service started, go to the diner across the street for a snack.

Our church was really a family deal. My two families on either side were a big element in how the church got run.

But in the background of this kind of liberal loose garment kind of institution there was the church structure and the minister that it provided to you.

Small enough, we got the losers, the drifters, or, sadly, the occasional authoritarian. But we were a back water. The bigger families ran the deal.

Jesus was there alright but he didn't have a whole lot of rules.

I got into some scuffles between the families. I was a busy bee with the gossip and such. But I left there and it all drifted into the past.

Oddly, just when I was free of the church and safely at MIT, I got dragooned into an actual, honest to god sunday school class at the ultra liberal Harvard Epworth Methodist that was run by a philosphy prof at BU. A great guy. He was all about the social gospel, human rights. At that time, they were all fighting a rear guard battle with the institutional church which was trying to get them to throttle it down.

I went there for a year or more and then passed out of the scene.

Some time later, my wife and I joined a small congregation of people who were building a church. When the minister came to our house it was easier to say yes than no and he found out I played the piano and I became the organist. It was fun. Young couples. Social stuff again. Not much theology. This was the Evangelical United Brethren Church which had a liberal history in many respects and less of a hold on their ministers and congregations.

They were on shakey ground institutionally and were, after we left there, sucked up by the Methodists. The Methodist United Church.

I just give all this history to show that in the colonies, distant from the church center, the Methodists were basically good people using the church as a social glue to hold their new or old marriages together, to keep their families within the safe confines of some moral code and, surprisingly, to have a good time together.

But at the center? A bunch of bastards. Hard nosed moral dictators with a bent for punishing their own ministers who strayed.

Lacking the resources to punish the people for their trespasses they kicked their ministers' asses and made a hard conformity necessary for personal success. They always rotated preachers. No one stayed in one place very long and so they were able to gain a fairly tight hold on the young minister's attention to hew, the line.

Somehow, when it came to gay rights, the Methodists became the worst of the non-evangelical non-born-again denominations. They became worse than the southern baptists and, faced with controversy, dug their hole even deeper until today they are being torn apart.

Serves the bastards right.

This marriage thing is going to kill them.

They are big, now, on church trials. Just like the fucking inquisition. Gay has become a central issue. The wrong fight at the wrong time for the wrong cause.

Labels: bigotry, gay rights, marriage equality, religion

SCHADENFREUDE

Today, Kevin Drum goes there.

Watching the Worm Turn on Gay Marriage

Basically, some evangelical is whining about being seen as an "An outcast, a bigot, narrow-minded, a "hater" or all of the above. It's a different type of ridicule but it's still ridicule."

Yup.

I agree with Kevin. A spade is a spade.

It must be tough to wake up and have your mind set and your lifestyle the subject of constant derogation.

Hey, just like being gay, right? But now, it is a fact, the evangelicals are in the minority and on the decline and homos are in the ascendancy.

Only the holy rollers are going to be extinct or divided into cults and "the gays" will just melt back into the crowd again as equal members of a just society.

I sure don't want to pick on evangelicals but when you have a huge kick me sign on your ass what do you expect?

In this one, in 1992, ol' Pat gets immolated by the "homes". If he only could have seen the future.

Labels: bigotry, christist watch, gay history, gay rights

MOTHER (EXPLETIVE)

The Palm Springs police chief resigned today.

PALM SPRINGS POLICE CHIEF RESIGNS OVER REMARKS MADE DURING STING TARGETING GAY MEN

I am just putting this up because I wrote about it before.

It was/is inevitable.

The stingees were going to make this the centerpiece of their harassment complaint.

Another homophobe hits the dust.

The bigotry aside, this is one of the biggest gay tourist destinations in the world.

No one, least of all an ignorant cop, is going to stand in the way of business interests which is all our Council and Mayor are about, mostly, and usually, to our detriment.

He should fall for stupidity. A stupid mother (expletive)!

Labels: bigotry, gay rights

I DON'T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE, I JUST CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU DID

This is a critical distinction that has often come up when dealing with gay slurs.

Labels: bigotry